Starc reminder of big talent

Date: January 4 2013

Chris Barrett

You get the impression Mitchell Starc, 22, will be one mighty handful of a fast bowler. The raw ingredients are all there: his shaping away to the right-hander, ability to swing the odd one back in, and that deadly yorker are all signs Australia has a long-term frontman in action at the SCG.

In fairness, there is more than one. Jackson Bird was the yin to Starc's yang on day one of the third Test against Sri Lanka.

The 26-year-old is so economical, Wayne Swan should offer him a job. In Melbourne, on debut, it was his unrelenting competence that allowed Mitchell Johnson, often wild and woolly, to unwind with devastating consequences. In a similar way, if not with identical results, Bird has given licence to Starc to chase opposition victims, rather than neat figures.

The poster boy of Australia's rotation policy this summer, Starc returned after a controversial break at the MCG. A day into his third Test of the home campaign he has collected an outstanding 16, without much fanfare.

There are justifiable reasons for that. The eight Starc took home from Perth, where Australia was flogged by South Africa, were inconsequential in the overall scheme of the match. In Hobart, where he wrapped up victory on the fifth afternoon, he struggled for much of the game.

Again, in Sydney Starc was sluggish before lunch. He improved steadily throughout the day, however, and won the prized scalps of Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews, with that characteristic angling across the left-hander.

He then marched wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal with a late in-swinging yorker. Starc last summer worked briefly on his bowling with Wasim Akram, and the Pakistan left-arm great would have been proud of this gem of a delivery.

The yorker outlined the juxtaposition of where Starc is as a Test player. At times he is eminently hittable, going for runs and almost pedestrian. Of his 19 overs on Thursday he did not produce a maiden. Bird, by contrast, chalked up 10 in his 19.4 overs.

Yet Starc is capable of the the vital breakthrough. It illustrates why Michael Clarke and the Australian team management see him as so important to their plans.